DB2- How to check if varchar field value has integers

Question

Is there an inbuilt DB2 function or any query to check if the character i have is a number? (I cannot use user defined functions)

Answer 1

I have made more error-prone version based on the idea xQbert exposed, added intermedia result, some examples and to_integer column which converts string value safely to integer:

select 
      test_str
    ,                  TRIM(TRANSLATE(replace(trim(test_str), ' ', 'x'), '           ', '0123456789'))
    , case when length(TRIM(TRANSLATE(replace(trim(test_str), ' ', 'x'), '           ', '0123456789')))=0 
      then cast(test_str as int) else null end to_integer
    , case when length(TRIM(TRANSLATE(replace(trim(test_str), ' ', 'x'), '           ', '0123456789')))=0 
      then 'integer'  else 'not integer' end is_integer
from (VALUES 
        ('  123  '  )
        ,('  abc  ' )
        ,('  a12  ' )
        ,('  12 3  ')
        ,('  99.3  ')
        ,('993'     )
    ) AS X(test_str)
;

The result for this example set is:

TEST_STR 2        TO_INTEGER  IS_INTEGER
-------- -------- ----------- -----------
  123                     123 integer
  abc    abc                - not integer
  a12    a                  - not integer
  12 3   x                  - not integer
  99.3   .                  - not integer
  993                     993 integer